Greetings from Vicksburg, Mississippi where I'm staying with Jason and his mother's place for the Giro de Rankin. Today were the Time Trial and Road Race and both were hot and hard. Temperatures at the start of the Road Race were probably around 95 F today, as riders huddled in the shade awaiting their starts.
The morning time trial was a one-way 4 mile affair over a moderately hilly route. I think my speeds varied from maybe 32 on some of the downhills to probably 16 on the uphills. My legs were feeling pretty good, or so I thought, and I got a good enough start, but somewhere around 2 miles into the TT I kind of lost my motivation, along with a couple of mph, for a while. The last mile and a half had some nice climbs and I actually enjoyed that part much more than the rest. Still, I thought my time was pretty lousy and was later surprised to find that it was the third fastest in the masters race, so I picked up a few omnium points for that. I was also surprised that my legs didn't feel very sore afterward, probably because I didn't really go hard enough. The winning time of the day was fully a minute and a half faster.
The road race was on a nice hilly course, and the combination of the hills and the heat made for a rather brutal experience for many. The masters race had, I guess, 25 riders, and the first lap was really fast. A 3-man break got off the front about mid-way through the first 20-mile lap. My teammate Jaro was in there so I hesitated to chase. Jaro is a very good sprinter. This break was being powered by a very strong rider, though, and they were really motoring. I was beginning to get concerned that Jaro would have difficulty handling the pace, considering the hills, the heat, and the 45 miles remaining in the race. Most of the pack seemed very reluctant to chase, so there were just a few guys who were pulling, but eventually the break got out of sight on the narrow, winding country roads. Finally one of the riders surged up a hill. I went with him and we quickly had a big gap. He looked back and said something like "those are some lazy riders back there." We increased our pace for a long time and eventually pulled out of sight of the pack. Four or five miles before the end of the first (of three) lap we started wondering if we were making a mistake. It was really hot and we had been going quite hard. About that time, however, we spotted the break in front of us and it was clear that we were inching our way closer to them. Around the end of the first lap, we saw that Jaro had been dropped by his two breakaway companions. We started to chase even harder, but we weren't making up ground very fast. For the next nine miles we chased the 2-man break that hovered a tantalizing 20 seconds ahead, and then finally we closed the gap. The four of us decided to work together, as we had no idea how far back the pack was or what was happening back there. As we finished the second lap, I knew I was in trouble. I was starting to skip pulls and in fact spend a few miles at the back trying to recover a little bit. Half-way through the last lap I was starting to feel my legs cramping up, and began wondering if I was going to be able to keep from being dropped. The last ten miles were sheer agony. Finally we reached the 1 Km to go sign and the strongest rider attacked. Neither of us even attempted to go with him. We were both cooked. The other rider sprinted at the 200 m mark and when I stood up and tried to sprint three or four muscle groups in my legs cramped up. "Game Over." I limped across in 3rd place. Jaro ended up coming in 6th. In the Cat. 4 race Jason got 2nd and in the 50+ race, Mark was "either first or second." After the race I felt like I'd been ridden hard and put up wet. My legs still hurt. We had to drive back to Vicksburg after the race, so I haven't any idea how the omnium points turned out.
Tomorrow's criterium will be tough.
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